THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Donald B. MacMillan
TIHE GREELY TABLET BEFORE UNVEILING: CAPE SABINE (SEE ALSO PAGE 700)
This memorial to one of the most tragic chapters in the history of American Arctic explo
ration is more than 700 miles above the Arctic Circle and is, therefore, one of the most
northerly monuments in the world to heroism and to international scientific cooperation. One
of Peary's huts is also on Cape Sabine.
On reaching the crest of the hill, the
huge beasts were in full view. We re
leased the dogs from their traces, and
they shot away at full speed. We. in con
trast, seemed to plod at a snail's pace,
carrying the heavy motion-picture camera
and the extra magazines.
The great, shaggy, black masses in
stantly jumped to their feet and formed
a circle, heads out, tails in, and horns
lowered (see pages 695 and 711).
When I arrived, I noticed that nearly
all of the animals facing us were rubbing
the sides of their heads between their
forelegs. They had never seen dogs or
men, and probably thought we were a
band of wolves. In fact, a white wolf
seated on a neighboring mound was an
interested spectator of the whole ensuing
performance.
When attacking musk oxen in 1909 on
the northern end of Greenland, I noticed
that, upon our approach to the herd, the
bulls repeatedly dropped their heads and
scraped the ends of their horns upon a
bowlder in their midst, as if sharpening
them for an attack. But the practice of
rubbing their heads on their legs puzzled
me for some moments, until I concluded
that they were rubbing away the frost
formed about their eyes by the conden
sation of their breath in cold weather.
They were thus able to see their assailants
more clearly.
THE AUTHOR MAKES TIlE FIRST MOTION
PICTURES OF MU SK OXEN
In several books on the Arctic, I have
found elaborate accounts of how musk
oxen exhibit the intelligence of a well
trained company of soldiers, forming into
a perfect hollow square and charging in
turn into the enemy. My motion pictures
show that they are simply a huddled mass
without formation. They charge without
order, but always retreat immediately to
the herd, as if fearful of being cut off
and surrounded by the enemy.
Mothers and calves are not in the
center, protected by an encircling line of
bulls. All, even the little ones, face to
ward the point of attack. The very
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